Nail cartridge for driving tool magazines



Nov. 12, 1968 F. c. HOWARD 3,410,620

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES Filed Aug. 9, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. 2

In 52 24 22 r l8 H 1 I "1 T M] W w ll! I 111' F 22 u L MT [\4 INVENTOR FRANK C. HOWARD By (ad-WM R;

Nov. 12, 1968 F. c. HOWARD 3,410,620

NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES Filed Aug. 9, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIE 5 INVENTOR FRANK C. HOWARD By 6024,0011). gala-M United States Patent 3,410,620 NAIL CARTRIDGE FOR DRIVING TOOL MAGAZINES Frank C. Howard, Wheeling, Ill., assignor to Signode Corporation, Chicago, III., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 9, 1967, Ser. No. 659,383 9 Claims. (Cl. 31273) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A disposable nail cartridge for driving tool magazines and comprising a shell containing a flexible strip of ribbon-connected nails. A series of inwardly extending longitudinally staggered ribs on the shell side walls defines a serpentine path for movement of the nails when the strip is pulled endwise from the shell, and additionally defines a series of internal pockets within which the nails are grouped and from which they are pulled serially.

The present invention relates to a nail package and has particular reference to 'a novel nail cartridge designed for insertion into the magazine of a power actuated driving tool. More specifically, the invention is concerned with a nail cartridge of the general type shown and described in a copending United States patent application filed by Arthur Langas and me on Oct. 11, 1965, bearing Ser. No. 494,476 and entitled Nail Cartridge for Driving Tool Magazines, over which cartridge the present one is an improvement. The nail cartridge disclosed in such application consists essentially of an outer disposable compartmented plastic shell or container within which there is disposed in closely nested relationship a single elongated flexible strip of ribbon-connected nails, the strip extending into and filling all of the compartments. The cartridge is designed for insertion bodily as a unit into the magazine of a power-actuated driving tool and, when so inserted, a feeding mechanism cooperates with a leading portion of the strip of nails to feed the nails forwardly, one at a time, thus periodically pulling the strip progressively out of the container through a narrow exit opening or slot in the adjacent end thereof. As the strip continues to be pulled forwardly, the various compartments are successively subjected to the pulling action of the feeding mechanism and, when all of the nails in the last compartment have been depleted, the container is discarded and a new cartridge is loaded in the tool magazine.

In the structure of the above-mentioned copending application, the problem of tilting of the nails within the magazine has been overcome by a special nail strip design wherein the various nails in the strip are interconnected by two ribbons, one in the vicinity of the nail heads and the other .in the vicinity of the nail points, together with a fairly wide spacing between adjacent nails in the series. Such an arrangement affords flexibility of the nail strip in either direction of fiexion of the strip but it inhibits relative tilting of the individual nails out of the general plane of the nail strip. Stated otherwise, the strip, by reason of its flexibility, may be caused to flow into a container by gravity in endwise fashion so that it will settle indiscriminately in the container and fill the same completely so that no voids are left. The strip may also be withdrawn from the container, when the cartridge is installed in a tool magazine, by pulling the nails progressively therefrom and, as the container becomes depleted of nails, the two connecting ribbons will have a tendency to prevent the nails from leaning in one direction or another so that as they pass from one compartment to the next, or approach the narrow vertical exit opening in the 3,410,620 Patented Nov. 12, 1968 container they will assume vertical positions for easy passage through the narrow slot-like openings between the compartments. The nail strip employed in connection with the present invention is similarly ribbon-connected in the vicinity of both the nail heads and the nail points so that nail tilting within the container is inhibited.

The shell or container of the cartridge of the present invention is an improvement over the container of the aforementioned application in that, although the nail strip cooperates with the container in the same general manner by insuring that the various nails will at all times remain substantially vertical for proper movement within the container during nail feeding operations, a more even flow of the nails from the remote regions of the container through the shell and toward the exit opening is attained with less friction being involved and with less abrupt direction changes of any given nail or group of nails being involved. By reason of this, less strain is placed upon the nail feeding mechanism of the driving tool and better nail alignment in the driver slot of such tool is attained, thus reducing the danger of nail jamming in any portion of the tool. By the same token, less strain is placed upon the interconnecting ribbons so that there is less danger of ribbon rupture, either within the container or along the feed path leading to the driver slot of the impact tool. Conversely, due to the extreme ease with which the nail strip may flow out of the container as set forth above, reverse movement of the nail strip into the container when filling operations at the factory take place are facilitated and the flexible strip, which is gravity fed into one open end of the container, will settle indiscriminately into the container and fill the remote regions thereof, layer after layer, but with the individual nails at all times lying in parallel relationship. The provision of a nail cartridge such as has briefly been outlined above constitutes the principal object of the present invention.

It is a further object of the invention, in a nail cartridge of the character under consideration to provide a novel and improved form of exit opening for the container wherein clearance is provided for the nail heads as they emerge from the container so that no restriction is offered to their free movement through the opening, either during nail feeding or container filling operations.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a nail cartridge of the type under consideration in which the exit opening of the cartridge shell or container is provided with a novel releasable locking arrangement in the vicinity of the exit opening thereof which, prior to installation of the cartridge in a tool magazine serves to positively retain the nails within the container against accidental spilling from the shell during shipment and handling of the latter, and which, after release thereof, exerts a biasing effect upon the nail strip as it emerges from the shell during feeding operations so that the nails will emerge from the exit opening one at a time and be yieldingly urged into proper position-within the guide slot or other nail track leading to the driver slot of the impact tool.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will readily suggest themselves as the following description ensues.

In the accompanying two sheets of drawings forming a part of this specification, one illustrative embodiment of the invention has been shown.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a nail cartridge embodying the principles of the present invention and showing the leading edge region of the contained nail strip emerging from the exit opening associated with the cartridge shell;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the structure shown in FIG. 1 with portions of the cartridge shell broken away to reveal more clearly the nature of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a front end view of the nail cartridge;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially on the line 44 of FIG. 2 and illustrating schematically the manner in which the cartridge is installed in the magazine of a nail driving tool for successive indexing of the nail strip and consequent progressive withdrawal thereof from the cartridge;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the front end region of the cartridge and showing the locking means for the nail exit opening of the cartridge shell in its looked condition; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic view illustrating certain conditions of nail movement which take place in the cartridge shell during nail-feeding operations.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, a nail package or cartridge constructed according to the present invention has been designated in its entirety at 10 and it involves in its general organization an outer container or shell 12 within which there is disposed an elongated flexible strip 14 of interconnected nails, the strip being folded or nested in indiscriminate fashion within the shell as will be described in greater detail presently. The nail strip 14 is substantially identical with the nail strip which is shown and described in the aforementioned copending applica tion, Ser. No. 494,476 and reference may be had to such application for a full disclosure of the details of such strip. However, for purposes of discussion herein it is sure-sensitive tape which are pressed together in between the nail shanks 22, the strip 18 being disposed a slight distance below the nail heads 24 and the strip being disposed a slight distance above the nail points 26. The nail strip is thus of a flexible nature and it is capable of readily being coiled, bunched, gathered or otherwise caused to assume a grouped nested condition wherein the nail heads assume contiguous positions in the manner shown at the right hand side of FIG. 4 and wherein the nails will substantially fill any appropriate container in which they may be placed, providing the container is substantially of full nail height. Moreover, the nail strip is of such flexibility that it may be caused to flow so to speak, into such a container by simply lowering the strip endwise and allowing the nails to move by gravity into the container.

The cartridge shell 12 is preferably, but not necessarily, formed of a suitable plastic material such as light gauge polyethylene sheet material of a transparent, translucent or opaque nature. It is comprised of two similar complemental sections and 32, each of which is of generally rectangular shallow pan-shaped design. Considering the shell 12 in the upright position which it assumes when loaded in a magazine and in which it is shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, the open rims of the sections 30 and 32 are provided with laterally turned rim flanges 34 and 36 respectively which are disposed in face-to-face contact and suitably secured together as for example by heat sealing or by a suitable adhesive or solvent. When the sections are thus secured together, a structure is provided having top and bottom walls 38 and 40, side walls 42 and 44, an angular rear end wall 46 and a front wall 47 which is interrupted by the provision of a passage 48 which constitutes a nail discharge or outlet opening when the nail strip 14 is withdrawn from the shell, and which also may serve as a filling opening when the shell is being filled with nails at the factory. The longitudinal extent of the shell section 30 is slightly less than that of the section 32 so that the rim flanges 34 and 36 are out of register at the forward end of the shell as clearly shown in FIG. 5, thus defining the nail outlet passage 48.

It will be appreciated that when a group of similarly oriented substantially vertically disposed nails are bunched together as shown at the right hand side of FIG. 4, the enlarged nail heads 24 will consume a greater area in a common horizontal plane than will the lower ends of the nail shanks 22. For this reason, the top wall 38 is made somewhat wider than the bottom wall while the side walls 42 and 44 are inclined downwardly toward each other. In their erect condition within the cartridge shell 12, there is a tendency for the individual nails to tilt since they possess a degree of unstable equilibrium. Such tilting of the nails ordinarily would lead to possible tangling of the nail strip within the shell, thus rendering it difficult, if not impossible to pull the strip endwise from the shell to completion. With a full cartridge shell, adjacent nails lend support to one another while the side walls of the shell also lend support to the nails. However as any given region of the shell becomes depleted of nails, the tendency for nail tilting is increased in substantially direct proportion to the number of nails remaining in the cartridge. Therefore, in order to inhibit nail tilting within the shell, a series of inwardly directed ribs 50 are formed on the side wall 42 and a similar series of ribs 52 are formed on the side wall 44. The ribs 50 are staggered with respect to the ribs 52 as best seen in FIG. 4 so that a generally serpentine or sinuous path or passage for movement of the nails through the shell during nail feeding operations is provided. The inward extent of the ribs 50 and 52 is not so great that there is any transverse overlapping of the ribs on the opposite side walls of the shell and, in fact, there is a central longitudinal unobstructed region within the shell which extends the entire distance from the rear end wall 46 to the front end wall 47, this region being considerably wider than the width of a nail.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 5 wherein the details of the outlet opening 48 are best illustrated, the flow of nails outwardly through such opening is greatly enhanced by the provision of a laterally offset portion 54 in the rim flange 34, this offset portion, in combination with the adjacent portion of the rim flange 36, establishing a widened outlet space or passage 56 to accommodate the outward movement of the enlarged nail heads 24 during nail feeding operations. It is to be noted that the overall width of the passage 56 is slightly less than the diameter of a nail head 24 and thus, as the nail heads pass outwardly through the passage 56, a slight frictional drag is placed upon the nail heads. It has been observed that, with a nail strip of the character under consideration, the enlarged nail heads 24 are the primary cause of nail clogging when a group of nails become unduly bunched together Therefore, by reason of the particular design of the nail outlet opening 48 with its widened region 54 as described above, the individual nails are, in effect, stripped from the adjacent nails as they pass through the outlet opening and there is no tendency for more than one nail to enter the opening at any given time.

Still referring to FIGS. 1 and S, releasable means are provided for effectively closing the nail outlet opening 48 against passage of nails outwardly therethrough and for locking such closing means against inadvertent release during shipment and handling of the cartridge prior to its installation in a nailing tool magazine. This means embodies a pair of forwardly projecting spaced apart flexible locking tabs 60 (see also FIG. 2) which are formed on the rim flange 36 of the container section 32 and which are adapted to be inserted through a slot 62 provided in an adjacent portion of the rim flange 34 of the section 30. Normally, during the feeding of nails when the cartridge is disposed in the tool magazine, the flexible resilient tabs 60 which are provided with reinforcing ribs 64, bear against the opposed face of the rim flange 34 and are adapted to be forcibly pushed aside or deflected by each nail as it emerges from the nail outlet opening 48. However, when the locking tabs 60 are inserted in the slot 62, such displacement thereof is prevented so that the entire nail strip is maintained within the shell and may not be withdrawn through the opening 48 until the tabs 60 are removed from the slot 62.

Referring again to FIG. 4 wherein the association of one of the nail cartridges with a power actuated nail driving tool has been schematically illustrated, the general outline of the nail magazine associated with the tool has been shown in broken lines and designated at 70. The magazine is provided with a relatively wide nail reservoir section 72 and with a front guide section 74' through which the oriented nails successively pass in moving to the driving station where they are operated upon by an impact driver 76. Any suitable means may be provided for advancing the nails intermittently to the driving station, a toothed impeller cog 78 being suitable for this purpose. The impeller cog may be operated intermittently by suitable ratchet and pawl mechanism (not shown).

The manner in which the nails 16 are drawn or pulled from the cartridge shell 12 may readily be ascertained by reference to FIG. 6 wherein the shell 12, which originally contained a full quota of nails, is shown as being approximately two-thirds depleted, and also to FIG. 7 wherein certain considerations of nail movement or flow through the shell are schematically illustrated.

Due to the fairly wide transverse spacing between the ribs 50 and 52, no definite and well defined compartmentation of the interior of the shell 12 takes place. However, in a general manner of speaking, the oppositely facing and longitudinally staggered ribs 50 and 52 may be regarded as dividing the interior of the shell into a number of serially arranged nail enclosures or pockets 80, these pockets being defined by the dotted lines in FIG. 6 and the individual pockets being labelled A, B, C, D, E, F and G. In FIG. 4, the pockets A, B, C, D and E are shown as being substantially depleted of nails. The pocket F is partially depleted, while the pocket G contains its full quota of nails. It can be readily visualized or ascertained that at the commencement of nail-feeding operations on a fresh, fully loaded cartridge 10, the nails 16 will first be pulled from the pocket A through the outlet opening 48, after which a substantially linearly straight row of ribbonconnected nails will extend from the pocket B to the outlet opening. Thereafter the nails will be pulled from the pocket B. Subsequently, as each serially arranged pocket becomes depleted, the nails will be pulled from the next adjacent rearward pocket until, finally, the nails will be pulled from the pocket G and the shell thereby fully depleted of nails. 2

It should be observed at this point that the generally rounded or curved corner regions of the shell, as well as the rounded crest portions of the ribs 50 and 52, and also the sloping sections of the interrupted front wall 47 of the shell, all contribute toward facility of nail movement within the shell. At no times are the nails obliged to pass around sharp corners and there are no narrow nail passages with which the nails must become substantially aligned before they may be pulled forwardly. Thus a minimum amount of pulling tension is required to withdraw the nails from the shell through the outlet opening 48.

The invention is not to be limited to the exact arrangement of parts shown in the accompanying drawings or described in this specification as various changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, whereas the present cartridge has been illustrated in the drawings and described in this specification as being a nail dispensing cartridge containing a supply of nails of the type having enlarged heads and reduced cylindrical shanks, it is within the scope of the invention to design the shell so that it will accommodate other types of fasteners which may or may not have enlarged heads. In such an instance the enlarged or widened portion 56 of the outlet opening 48 would have no useful function and therefore would be eliminated. Therefore, only insofar as the invention has particularly been pointed out in the accompanying claims is the same to be limited.

Having thus described the invention, What I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A nail cartridge for use in a nail magazine associated with a nailing tool and comprising: a cartridge shell of elongated box-like configuration defining an internal nail enclosure and having a top wall, a bottom Wall, opposed side walls and a front wall provided with a vertically elongated nail outlet opening, and a flexible nail strip disposed within said shell and, when the strip is in its extended condition, comprising a row of nails having enlarged heads and depending shanks and arranged in sideby-side spaced parallel relationship, and a flexible web of a width appreciably less than the length of the nail shanks secured to the latter and serving to maintain the nails in their spaced parallel relationship, each of said side walls being provided with a series of inwardly projecting ribs, the ribs of the two series being staggered in the longitudinal direction of the shell and, in combination with said side walls, defining a generally sinuous path within the shell for movement of the nails forwardly toward said outlet opening, said ends walls and ribs, in combination with the adjacent side walls, defining a series of serially arranged pockets on opposite sides of the shell, said nails being disposed in approximate vertical positions and being in closely grouped contiguous relationship so as to substantially fill said pockets whereby, upon pulling of the strip endwise outwardly through said outlet opening the nails in the serially arranged pockets will be successively withdrawn from the nail groups contained therein.

2. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein said nail outlet opening is provided with a widened region at the upper end thereof for passage of the enlarged nail heads outwardly therethrough to facilitate movement of the nails through the outlet opening.

3. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 1, wherein said inwardly projecting ribs are of appreciably less transverse extent than one-half the width of the nail enclosure, thus establishing a straight linear path for movement of the nail strip toward the nail outlet opening after the nails in each successive pocket have been withdrawn.

4. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 2, wherein said shell is comprised of two complemental sections of generally rectangular pan-shaped configuration, each section being provided with a continuous rim flange therearound with the two rim flanges being secured together in face to face relationship in the vicinity of the shell side walls and rear end wall, the longitudinal extent of one of said sections being less than the longitudinal extent of the other section whereby the rim flanges in the vicinity of the front end wall are out of register with each other and thus define said nail outlet opening, the rim flange on said one section adjacent the outlet opening being provided with a forwardly extending tab the distal end of which bears yieldingly against the rim flange of said other section and serves to yieldingly restrain the movement of nails outwardly through said outlet opening.

5. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 4, wherein the rim flange on said other section is formed with a slot therein designed for reception therein of said forwardly extending tab, thereby positively locking said outlet opening against outward movement of nails therethrough during handling of the cartridge.

6. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 2, wherein the rim flange of said other section is formed with a laterally offset portion which, in combination with the rim flange on said one section, defines said widened region at the upper end of the outlet opening.

7. A nail cartridge for use in the nail magazine of a driving tool and comprising: an elongated shell defining an internal nail enclosure and having top and bottom walls, opposed side walls, a rear end wall and a front end wall provided with a vertically elongated nail outlet opening, a flexible nail strip comprised of vertical ribbon-connected nails nested within the shell and substantially filling the same, said side walls being provided with a series of longitudinally staggered inwardly directed ribs defining a serpentine path for forward movement of the nails toward said outlet opening when the strip is pulled endwise from said opening, said ribs being of less transverse extent than one-half the width of the nail enclosure so as to define a straight linear path for forward nail movement of the leading portion of the strip when the latter is placed under pulling tension.

8. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 7, wherein said shell is comprised of two generally rectangular panshaped shell sections disposed in rim-to-rim relationship, the longitudinal extent of one of the sections being less than that of the other section whereby the front portion of the rims of the two sections define said nail outlet open- 9. A nail cartridge as set forth in claim 8, wherein the rim of said one section is formed with a forwardly extending tab which projects across said outlet opening and yieldingly bears against the rim of the other section, thus restraining the nails against free passage through the outlet opening,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,173,728 3/1965 Sheer 312-73 3,357,761 12/1967 Langas et al. 3l273 BOBBY R, GAY, Prinmry Examiner.

I. L. KOHNEN, Assistant Examiner. 

